See Ya Texas!

Our adventures in the Lone Star State have come to an end!  We are off on another exciting journey now.  Find us out west at tonyaintucson.blogspot.com!  See ya'll over there!

Absolute...Utter...Craziness

Yep.  That about sums up life in these parts right now.  We are running full throttle ahead in move mode.  Or rather.  I am.  Notice the "I".  It's a nice one letter word.  One little letter.  All alone.  That's kind of me right now.  One mom.  All alone.  Trying to get it ALL done.  Grrrr.  I'm wavering tonight between exhaustion, tears, anger, resentment, being TOTALLY and completely overwhelmed and feeling like I've got this.  I have been steadily packing.  I feel like I have.  But often through the day, I think...what if it's not enough?  What if my pace is not fast enough?  And what if moving day gets here (and it WILL...and VERY SOON) and I'm not ready?  This is the first time since Clara was two years old that I've had to totally pack us and get us ready for the move.  The last two big moves, the company we were working for has handled it all.  NOT the case this time.  It's all on us.   And of course...US is cheap!  US does not want to spend a whole lot more out of pocket than we really have to. Just so we are clear...I am TOTALLY on team US.  I agree with not putting out more cash than we have to.  Of course...it sounds a lot better than when it actually plays out.  As I am shoving things into boxes late at night and every spare moment that I have (which happen to be few and far between right now), I start to second guess that whole money saving strategy.  I start to think that it's worth every penny to have packers come and just DO IT and do it efficiently and quickly.  I'm really thinking MY TIME is worth the whole $2000 or so that we saved by doing it "ourselves".  Which...who are we kidding?  Is MYSELF???!!!!  Here's what I am thinking tonight.  1)  We have a LOT of shit.  It's ridiculous.  Period.  2)  I can't BELIEVE I have wedding presents, UNUSED, still in their original boxes, that I have just packed for the 8th time in 18 years.  WHY do I still have them?  WHY am I not using them?  These are the questions some counselor would probably have a field day with.  Some day.  When I had some time.  3)  I am setting a goal to throw a party when I get to my new house and actually use all those UNUSED wedding gifts so that I do not pack them ever again UNUSED and shiny brand new.  Geez...talk about ridiculous!!!!  4)  I am thinking "thank you God for wine.".  Just thought I would throw that one out there because I am SERIOUSLY thinking it after this week.

This week has been LONG.  Everything that can go wrong, HAS gone wrong.  I probably shouldn't have typed that on a Thursday night with a whole day left in this week that things can still go wrong!  I may very well regret that.  What's gone wrong you ask?  It might be easier to tell you what HASN"T gone wrong!  Nah...just kidding.  Here's what hasn't gone according to schedule...Mother Nature.   I started my period three days early.  I've been known to start A DAY early...but never three.  But this week is special.  Of course it is.  And so...I get to be bleeding to death while all the other things go off schedule and I deal with them.  For instance...the call from the school nurse telling me my son isn't feeling well and "just doesn't look well".  That's probably due to the strep throat diagnosis we got.  AGAIN.  Good grief, I am SICK of Texas and the endless supply of strep throat that seems so rampant here.  My kids have NEVER had it before we moved here.  Grrrrrrr.  Poor Max.  Never had an antibiotic in his entire 15 years of life.  But now...in Texas...we are on our third round THIS SCHOOL YEAR!!!!!!!  What else has not gone according to schedule?  The pool pump breaking...that was most definitely NOT on the schedule.  And then, there's the needing to notarize a whole pile of papers for me to give Chris Power of Attorney so he can close on the house in Tucson without me.  When what we realized we really needed was papers for Chris giving ME power of attorney to close on this house in Texas without him.  Grrrr.  Add in the glitch with the dance studio pictures which left one of the fields on my dance tags BLANK, plus the 4th grade recorder concert, plus the crazy AP world history testing schedule.  Let's not forget my forgetting to order poor Clara a "fun pack" for the fun day activities tomorrow, and let's add in the water polo banquet that is this weekend a good 40 minute drive from home.  I love driving 40 minutes each way for a two hour dinner.  Grrrrr.

 At this point, I am tired.  And cranky.  Overwhelmed.  Exhausted.  Pushed to the limit.  Out of patience.  And feeling like I might just snap at any moment.  Thank you, God for wine.  That's all I have to say on that matter tonight.  I'm off to bed, because it's late and more than 6 hours of sleep is a luxury I am still treating myself to.  For this week at least!   Utter craziness.  It's the speed of life around these parts!

Two Weeks and 153 Chocolate Chip Cookies Later...

We have our first contract on the house!  It came in last night...so technically, we got our contract exactly 2 weeks from the day that we listed it on the market.  Nothing is final yet.  We are negotiating said contract right now.  We plan to kick back a counter offer.  Play a bit of hard ball.  You know how that all goes.  It's not exactly the contract we would have hoped...so we are hoping to improve the terms a little bit and then...if we can get it all to gel...we should be good to GO!  I am anxious this afternoon and tired and so ready to pull some closure on this one.  Mostly, I am ready to just get the heck out of Texas and get on with life in AZ!  THAT is what I am most ready for!  The kids have just about 35 days until school is OUT for the year.  And when that day comes we would SO love to be loading up and hitting the road for our NEW house and new town.  We have had SO many showings in these two weeks.  17 different showings...which means the house has been beyond perfect and spotless 17 different times in the last 14 days.  And each and every time I have baked a pan of fresh, hot, chocolate chip cookies and left them out on a plate on the counter by the "information about this house" folder.  9 cookies, to be exact.  So nine cookies, times 17 showings adds up to a grand total of 153 hot, gooey, fresh baked goodness. The buyers have enjoyed many of those.  But nearly ALL of those.   I'm sure you can imagine what 153 (give or take two or three cookies a showing) cookies is doing to my diet plan right now...so time is of the essence here.  We have GOT to get this house SOLD so the cookie madness can just stop.  I am going to need to run many MANY miles to work all of this off!  But enough about that!  Pray for a good resolution to the contract.  I'm stressed.  And stressed.  And anxious.  And stressed out about it all.  We need to sell the house.  Tonight.  The end.  Please pray that that is exactly what happens!

Observing

Today's house showing went well.  Well, I think it did.  From what I could tell.  A young couple with two small children viewed the house today.  That's a good sign.  We've had a couple of older couples look at it, and to tell you the truth, I just don't feel like this is an older couple kind of house.  Why in the world would an older couple want or need nearly 5000 square feet on two floors?  It just does not compute.  But a young family....ahhh.  THAT's more like what I envision.  Anyway.  The family stayed for 17 minutes. Not that I was sitting up the street and watching from a distance.  You know...stalking.  Okay.  Who am I kidding?  I was totally stalking my house and watching to see who, what and how long it lasted.  17 minutes was a good amount of time.  If they had hated it, they would have been in and out.  17 minutes is significant.  The little chairs at the desks in the gameroom were pulled out and I do believe two little boys had been sitting in them.  I take that as a good sign.  They were making themselves at home.  There were 4 mini chocolates and 2 granola bars missing from our "Take One and Refresh" basket we have out on the counter for visitors.  Snacking is a good sign.  They took one of the papers with the picture of the house and information concerning it with them.  For future reference.  I'll take that as another good sign.  And so....on day 5 of house selling...I am happy with today's showing.  Happy.  Hopeful.  Anxious.  And now TOTALLY anticipating.  Come on contract!  Mama needs a new house.  In Arizona.  Soon!  Next week would be great!

House For Sale...Day 5

Well, as of late this afternoon, the house will have been on the market for five days.  We are scheduled for our 6th showing about 30 minutes from now.  The house has NEVER looked better.  It's clean.  Shiny.  The carpets are newly shampooed.  The windows are clean and sparkling.  There is not a speck of dust or grime ANYWHERE.  Every lightbulb is working.  Every surface extra shiny.  No mess lingers.  Anywhere.  AT ALL!  It's all a giant pain.  And at the same time...I am LOVING it!  The whole house is CLEAN.  And at the SAME TIME!!!  Not just one floor.  Not just one room.  The whole house!  It's been great to discover just how much my family can accomplish in an hour.  Or 20 minutes.  For example.  We got a last minute showing request this morning for a noon to 1:00 time slot.  No big deal.  The house is clean and ready.  But there's the doggies.  We don't like to leave them here while strangers are in the house.  Cooper will bark his fool head off and it is NOT an enjoyable experience.  So we are making a concerted effort to take them with us each and every time we possibly can.  That means I am bagging some activities and sacrificing some things to make sure that that happens.  This week, it was bible study on Wednesday.  And then church this morning.  I hate it...but it's worth it to sell the house sooner.  However...because we didn't end up going to church, we DID end up with just over an hour of unexpected time to "get ready" for the showing.  So Chris and the kids managed to make GREAT strides in straightening up the garage.  AND repainting the workbench and cabinet doors out there.  It looks brand new and shiny!  In addition, Ben hit the walls with the magic eraser.  It's amazing how awesome it looks and what they accomplished in ONE HOUR!!!  I'm telling you...many hands make for light work FOR SURE!  And so...the house is, yet again, even cleaner, and shinier than it has been for the previous five showings.  Someone is braving the rain and nastiness today to come out and see our home.  I'm praying that THIS is the one!  I'm so excited about moving away from Texas I can hardly stand it.  I KNOW that this is only day 5 on the market...but I'll be the first to tell you that I am not real patient!  I like to get it done.  I'm anxious to have this one checked off my list, so to speak.  And so...I'm about to flip on all the lights and pray that THIS is it!!!  Join me, huh?

It's Official!

The Roberts family is getting out of Texas!  That's right!  We are on the move!!!  Our destination?  Right back to that great state that we came from!  Chris has accepted a position with a new company and we are moving to Oro Valley, Arizona.  The details have all been finalized.  The house went on the market TODAY and we are counting down the weeks until we can bid this state GOODBYE!!!!!  I have lived in many places.  Texas has BY FAR been my least favorite.  And of all the places I have lived, Arizona has been, BY FAR my very MOST favorite!  So I am downright giddy this afternoon.  Of course...that COULD have something to do with the crazy paint fumes I've been inhaling all day long!  Whew!  The painters are here polishing everything up all pretty for us.  Repainting a bathroom.  Taking care of a few small repairs.  The fumes are a bit, ummm, heavy.   I probably need a breath of fresh air right about now.  And so...on that note...I will you to ponder and rejoice in our VERY exciting news!  Pray for us on our new adventure.  And that our house sells.  This week!  Just kidding.  I'm patient about all that.  I'm totally fine with it if it takes, you know...three weeks.

Easter Weekend

Our family did something totally different for Easter this year.  We left town.  We took our trailer and went to Lake Ray Roberts, one of the state parks here in Texas.  We've been once before and really enjoyed it, so we decided to head up there once more since the kids were out of school on Friday.  We had a FANTASTIC weekend.  We didn't get there nearly as early as I had hoped.  Didn't get a spot right on the lake as I had hoped.  But we DID end up in a beautiful shady spot up on the hill, kind of off by itself.  In the end, I couldn't have been happier with our site!  We didn't hunt for Easter eggs, but rather, were sent out geocaching for information about egg laying animals.  That was a total first for us.  Following a compass and coordinates to find small hidden clues.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  Clara totally loved it.  It was different being away for Easter.  To just wake up with my family on Easter morning and not be rushing out the door to church.  Not worrying about being dressed in our Easter finest...just shorts and t-shirts.  It was pouring rain this morning when we woke up. Which was a neat treat and made for a particularly cozy morning.  By the time breakfast was done and it was time to pack up, the rain had stopped and so we were dry while we packed it all in and got on the road.  Here are a few fun pictures from our weekend away! Enjoy!

Chris caught some fish out on the lake!

Cooper was VERY interested in those wiggly fish.

SO interested that he decided he'd just borrow one!

He's an opportunist.  If he sees the opportunity...he can't resist.  

Not sure what he thinks he's going to do with it.

But there he goes with our dinner!

He's very proud of himself and his "catch"!

Clara steps in to remove his prize.  Sorry Cooper!

She's not a fan of fish...but did well with this one!

In addition to retrieving fish from crazy dog jowls...she is an excellent cook!

One of the best things about camping is the lack of electronics....which often results in the miracle of READING by the teenagers!

Oscar and Max just chilling out and relaxing!

Chef Ben manning the grill to make sure we don't burn up his fish!

Indian Paintbrush wildflowers.  They were everywhere!

He's all worn out!

He's hungry!

ALWAYS hungry!

Found some time for some impromptu family photos.  All of these were shot in about 10 minutes!  Not bad really!

Cannot believe how big this girl of mine is getting.

I loved this rustic little enclosure the minute I came upon it during our last camping trip.  I knew I just had to haul my crew over there for a quick snapshot!  I love this one because even Cooper and Oscar are with us!

Goofballs!

My three stooges.

A rare picture of the two of us.  Ben did these.  I think he has talent!

18 years and going strong!

Ben's big catch of the weekend!

Clara is beyond thrilled to have her own bunk in the new trailer.  

Being silly by the campfire.

Ben showing off his farmer's tan.

Clara geocaching at the Easter egg hunt and leading the charge with the compass.  It was a first for us...but fun!

She was in charge of the technology.  We followed coordinates in order to "hunt" for information about egg layers.

Hoping she's found something...

And she DID find it!  First one of the day!

Clara and her daddy consulting of which direction we should head next.

Another great find!

And another!

Clara with her GeoCache find!

It's very serious business!  She's having a BLAST!

What the heck???!!!!!

ONLY IN TEXAS do they give kids a piece of laminated snake skin as their Easter egg hunt prize!  What the heck happened to chocolate and jellybeans???!!!  I think I am scarred for life after this one!

Spring is In the Air...

Ahhh.  For once, I am LOVING the Texas weather!!!  Temperatures are hovering just below 80 degrees here.  The sun  is shining brilliantly, the blue skies are back and the color GREEN is bursting forth from EVERYWHERE!  I LOVE the tulips and flowers I see popping up everywhere.  I LOVE seeing the leaves fill out on the trees again. I LOVE seeing the promise of what lies ahead in my little yard after all of our hard work last year!  It's just glorious!!!

At of right now, Clara has been taking piano lessons for exactly ONE month! She's done SUCH a great job.  And she is learning SO much, SO fast!  Curious about her progress?  Well, I thought you'd enjoy seeing it for yourself!

Clara is a perfectionist, so at times, these lessons have pained her GREATLY.  She wants to be able to play every song through PERFECTLY the first time around.  I have explained to her that if that were the case we wouldn't really NEED a piano teacher or lessons.  Still...these lessons are really growing her and I do not mean just musically!  Her lessons are on Wednesday, and typically, she is in meltdown and total "musical failure" in her words, until about Saturday morning...at which point, the new music seems to start coming together for her and she magically falls in love with the song and masters it by Sunday!  Trudge ahead to next lesson.  Dazzle music teacher.  Get new music.  Repeat cycle!

But music is not this child's only talent.  Oh no!  She's a big old bundle of entertaining!  For example...can you do this?

Or this?

No?  Me either!  But this one can and she keeps us eternally amused with her many talents!  She's quite the little performer!  Stay tuned!  I'm sure she will have plenty of other tricks to amuse you with!

What else?  Shoot.  My mind has gone absolutely BLANK!  Dangit!  Believe it or not, I come up with the BEST posts.  When I'm not at home or close to a computer where I could actually yank them out of my head and share them with you.  OH well!  On that empty headed note...I guess I shall conclude and just leave you here with the talented Clara!  Better luck next time, right?!

Approaching Cranky

About three weeks ago, I dislocated my rib.  Badly.  Chris and I were working our way through the LAST week of Insanity and mid pushup, I felt and heard a loud pop in the middle of my back.  It hurt, for sure...but I seemed fine enough.  The next few days I was VERY sore, so assumed I had pulled a muscle or something.  I was careful, modified my last three days of workout, iced the area, massaged the area.  You name it...I pulled out every trick I know.  Alas, it was not getting any better.  After 11 days with no improvement I had had enough and went to see my chiropractor.  She x-rayed me, fearing I might have broken something.  Nothing broken, thank goodness!  But I did have a very dislocated rib.  Which explained totally while it hurt to move and why I couldn't really take a deep breath.  Both my chiropractor and the x-ray tech said they had neither seen anything like my wonky rib.  So she fixed it.  Reset it.  Taped it all up.  I was given instructions to ice, be still, take it easy,  No exercise beyond walking for a full week.  And for once, I actually listened.  And I felt better.  But after a full week, while I could certainly breathe better, I noticed that I was still unable to move certain ways and it actually seemed to be getting some worse.  So yesterday, I headed back in to see if it needed tweaking.  It did.  Along with the ribs on the other side.  Oh joy.  After much cracking and disgusting crunching ( I HATE the sound of bones moving), I am, supposedly, put back into place.  However, this morning, I am not feeling much improved.  And I am, now, three weeks into this thing, approaching cranky.  I have already iced this morning.  And there is NO WAY I am going to attempt a run.  Yesterday's attempt was one of the most painful runs of my life!  I just want it all to settle down and BEHAVE!!!  I think bones should just chill out and stay where you put them.  It would certainly make my life a bit easier right about now.

On another, completely different note...report cards came home yesterday.  No one flunked any classes.  Nothing below a C.  But Ben's report card smacked of laziness and Max...well, poor Max missed the mark ONCE AGAIN.  The rule around here has been...all year long...A's and B's will earn you keys.  Max has been legally eligible to take his driver's learning permit test since July.  However...his grades have NOT been too great this year.  As a matter of fact, they were poor enough that he had to sit out the last 4 meets of the swim season, due to a couple of D's he earned.  He did have everything back up into the A and B arena this time.  All except for one grade.  One lab he failed to turn in brought his chemistry grade down to a C.  Yet another lesson in responsibility brought to you by life!  I did point out to him that it is ENTIRELY possible that Benjamin may be able to earn and take the permit test long before Max ever pulls it together enough to do so.  I don't think he enjoyed that vision one bit.  Of course, he doesn't think for a second that this scenario will ever in a million years happen...which is exactly why it most probably WILL happen.  My Max does love to live in the land of Denial...that's for sure.  Anyway...another six weeks without a teenage driver in the house (thank you Lord!).  Suffice it to say that I am NOT ready to see Max Roberts behind the wheel of a car.  Out on the road alone.  At all.  Makes me all kinds of queasy just thinking about it!

What else?  Well, if you are "in the loop" on an insider basis, then I will say that there is still no news and you will know, unfortunately, what that means.  All is quiet and so we are waiting.  And you KNOW how much I hate waiting.  Patience has never been my strong point.  There is no end in sight...but hope springs eternal in the Roberts house.  Perhaps there will be news soon?

And in final thoughts...I am horribly and terrifically allergic to this state of Texas.  Sneezing my fool head off I tell ya.  Which is great fun with this wonky rib.  Claritin is the single most USELESS allergy drug I have ever encountered in my entire life.  I'm sitting here wondering why the man across the street is eternally running around in his pajamas and socks outside.  I see him do it ALL THE TIME and I just wonder why he hasn't found time to get dressed yet, since it's 10:15 a.m. on a Friday morning?  I am wishing someone would show up at my door and announce that they are here to clean my kitchen, followed by all my floors and then all my laundry.  (Yes, I AM delusional....AND??????)  And I am hungry and in need of a snack.  Which is now my cue to get off of here and get into my dirty kitchen and get to work I guess.  Uggggh.  That thought alone is enough to push me right on over the line into Cranky Town!  Have a great Friday!  Back soon!

The Speed of Life!

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last post.  And I cannot believe that this stupid blog did not save the FIRST draft of THIS post that I started, but was unable to finish!  Grrr.  Back to the beginning then it is.  Life is zooming by us.  It's been a crazy month.

Well, for one thing, we FINALLY got to take our new trailer out camping for a weekend!  Woo hoo!  Okay...not a whole weekend.  Just for one night.  But still...woo hoo!  We planned to go one weekend, but then, as the weekend approached, the forecast was for colder and colder temps.  Highs of 41 degrees and lows down to 23 degrees.   Winds of 30 mph.  NOT delightful camping weather.  So we bailed and rescheduled for the following weekend when they were predicting sunshine and temperatures in the 60's.  This is especially important when you have Ben along for the ride and Ben  has his heart on spending his time down at the lake fishing!  60 degrees is much better fishing weather than 40 degrees!  And so we were all set for the next weekend.  However...as THAT weekend approached, the forecast became quite dreary with rain predicted for almost the whole weekend and chilly temps again.  However, Chris was excited and anxious to try out the new wheels, as we all were, and so we decided to just go for it...rain and all and piled up and headed out.  And it was great.  Except for the relentless pouring rain (which we planned for).  And the fact that we forgot our brand new grill back at the house (did NOT plan for that).  Thankfully, I married an engineer boy and he, together with Ben managed to construct an impressive rain shield out of tin foil and other assorted goodies and get a good old fashioned charcoal grill going on which to cook our steak dinner.  It was SO cold out there.  And SO wet!  But still, we had a great time.  We all snuggled up in our blankets and watched movies on the big tv in the RV.  We sat in front of the fireplace enjoying the cozy effect of it and even had to shut the heat feature off at one point because it was doing TOO good a job keeping us warm and cozy.  We all slept great in our new beds (except for me because my back was KILLING me and it hurt to lay on my back...more about that later), and woke up to a beautiful, much warmer, sunshiney day!  Ben was so excited to hit the lake and try to see if he could catch "the big one".  So after a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and pancakes, Chris and the kids were off to the lake to fish, while I cleaned up and began to secure things for the short drive back home.  And before we knew it...it was time to load up and haul our home away from home...back home!  It was a great "practice" camp and I have a great little list now of a few things we still need to purchase for the new wheels.  Can't wait until spring break!

In other news, both Clara and Max have had strep throat.  AGAIN!  Clara had barely finished her antibiotics when she started having symptoms again.  Literally just 24 hours after finishing her 10 day course of medicine.  And so I made an appointment with the pediatrician to have her looked at and rechecked. It ended up being a 4:00 appointment, so I picked up Max from swim practice on the way.  As he got in the car he said HIS throat was hurting really bad and his stomach didn't feel good.  A quick phone call later, Max also had an appointment with the doc.  Two swabs later, we had a positive strep diagnosis times two!  As it turns out, the doctor at the minute clinic had underprescribed Clara's meds two weeks earlier when she had the strep.  She was given the lowest dose you can possibly prescribe and was only prescribed it half as often as would have been needed at that low of a dose.  And so...the second she stopped taking it,  the strep (which we had not killed off, only knocked back a bit), took off like wildfire!  So I guess Clara really didn't have strep twice...just one really long case of it.  Anyway...all meds are done now.  Again, and both Max and Clara are feeling all groovy and normal again.  At one point, I thought Ben would be joining the strep party and he did end up at the doctor as well having HIS throat swabbed, but he was clean...no strep...just a crud.  Thank goodness!

What else?  Well, I discovered that I may have a Candida overgrowth, which is basically a yeast imbalance in the gut.  It causes all sorts of crazy symptoms, most of them seemingly unrelated and random.  I discovered this by total fluke, reading an article in the magazine that is put out by our gym each month.  The treatment is largely diet oriented, though there are a couple of supplements you take for a couple of weeks to help even things back out.  It's a hard diet, with some surprising results, but you can check that out over at my other blog.  That one deals more with food!  Despite the hard changes, I am surviving.  But more importantly, I am feeling BETTER!

I guess that about sums it up for now.  I am sure there is so much more that I have missed, but life has been so crazy around here and it's really all I can think of as it's getting late, late, late here in Texas and morning comes terribly early around these parts on  Monday mornings!  And so...That's all for now folks!  More updates to come soon!

Summer UPgrade!

We spent the weekend picking up our new wheels.  We bought a new trailer!  We have been camping for about 8 years now.  We started with our three kids in a tent in Arizona.  We LOVED it!  SO much that after a year of that we upgraded to a pop up camper so that we could camp in more seasons.  Tent camping in the desert can get CHILLY for sure!  We loved having heat and beds off the ground.  We camped a LOT.  SO much that we upgraded to a 25 foot trailer.  It had bunk beds for the boys and a slide out bed for Chris and I.  We loved that rig too! And after a couple of years we upgraded to a 30 foot 5th wheel.  THAT one was a big upgrade because we had to buy a truck that could pull it.  We have been in that trailer for 4 years now and our family has grown a lot!  And things that worked pretty great when Clara was 5, do NOT work so great now that she is 9!  We have felt somewhat spatially challenged the past couple of years.  This past summer, we decided to upgrade again, to something bigger that we will NOT outgrow!  I've been at this a long time and I know what works and what does NOT work with three kids!  So when I came across this certain floor plan, my heart skipped a few beats I was so excited.  It's PERFECT!  And now...as of this weekend...it is also MINE!!!!   Besides myself, I can't think of anyone who loves camping as much as we do...except for my dad.  He LOVES it.  Always has.  And dreams of having another camper himself one day...though nothing as big as "The Beast", which is what we are calling our new trailer.  While The Beast is much different from the trailer my dad dreams about...I know he is crazy excited for us and would LOVE to see it.  Anyway...this video is just for him...it's the closest thing to a personal tour that I can give him!  Enjoy, Daddy!!!  This video tour is just for you!!!

Clara and the Camera

Clarabelle let me take her picture the other day.  She was "in the mood" so to speak.  Feeling dramatic is really what it was all about.  But I happily grab my camera whenever I have a willing participant.  I had a new antique chair I wanted to play with.  It's all faded and chipped and beat up and is EXACTLY what I had envisioned.   Not necessarily with Clara...I was thinking two year old...but it was fun to see how it would shoot just the same!  And Clara had a new headband she wanted her picture made in. So off we went for a very impromptu shoot.  Here are some of that session!  I will add here that it was COLD!   Below 45 degrees...but Clara insisted she wanted to do this.  I could no longer feel my fingers to push the button on the camera by the time we finished these...but we did have fun!

Notice how she tipped her head to me so the headband would show?!

I love how sweet she looks in this one.  

Time for her hat!

Her inner movie star is starting to show!

Love this of her!

She's so seriously cute...I could just eat her up!

The movie star is back!  And I am LOVING this bridge!

Work it girl!

This one is my FAVORITE from the day!

 And there you have it!!!!  Impromptu photo shoot in the cold!  Hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as we enjoyed shooting it!